Janelle Monae "Today Show" Performance Cut Following Comments About Police Brutality

Janelle Monae's speech about protecting black lives was phased out during a televised performance. Janelle Monae took the Today Show stage on Friday morning to perform alongside Jidenna and her other Wondaland signees, but after the gleeful energy of "Classic Man" and "Yoga," Monae took things in a more serious direction with her political new single, "Hell You Talmbout". The singer closed the performance with a speech about police brutality, but the network had the camera cut away, and a voice of a reporter chime in before she could finish her thoughts. It's possible it was an unfortunate coincidence of timing, but we wouldn't put it past the Today Show for trying to shy away from "controversial" content. Ironically, the last thing we hear from Monae is "we will not be silenced". Supporting the suggestion that The Today Show isn't looking to align themselves with the Black Lives Matter movement is the fact that video of the performance has not been uploaded to their website.